White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped a federal judge who has prevented a group of immigrants from being deported to a third country, this time South Sudan.
“A liberal activist district court judge in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, is trying to force the president of the United States to bring these monsters back to our country,” Leavitt told reporters Thursday, naming District Judge Brian Murphy.
Leavitt contended that the eight immigrants, who are in Djibouti, “had final orders of removal from our country” but that Murphy is making “federal officials to remain in Djibouti for over two weeks, threatening our U.S. diplomatic relationships with countries around the world, and putting these agents’ lives in danger by having to be with these illegal murderers, criminals, and rapists” after he ordered this week that the Department of Homeland Security provide them 15 days to reopen their immigration cases.
“Judge Brian Murphy is not the secretary of state,” she said. “He is not the secretary of defense or the commander in chief. He is a district court judge in Massachusetts. He cannot control the foreign policy or the national security of the United States of America, and to suggest otherwise is being completely absurd.”
Leavitt alleged that Murphy is a registered Democrat and failed to disclose during his Senate confirmation hearings that he had previously found that describing “illegal aliens” as “illegal” is “inherently prejudicial.”
“Radical left-wing judges are egregiously trying to stop President Trump from using his core constitutional powers as head of the executive branch and commander in chief,” she said. “We hope the Supreme Court will continue to rein this in as soon as possible, to restore proper constitutional order in our country.”
Murphy this week found that the Trump administration had “unquestionably” violated his court order not to deport immigrants to third countries without some due process because the government had made it “impossible” for this group to have a sufficient opportunity to argue against their deportation. The judge also asked for the names of officials involved in the decision so he could notify them that they may face criminal contempt penalties.
Leavitt, like the Department of Homeland Security in court, asserted that the migrants, from the likes of Burma, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, South Sudan, and Vietnam, are “vicious illegal criminals.”
Leavitt’s comments give voice to increasing frustrations from the executive branch of government regarding the judiciary since the start of Trump’s second administration.
JUDGE RULES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION VIOLATED COURT ORDER WITH MIGRANT FLIGHT TO AFRICA
White House officials hope the Supreme Court will help restrict the power of lower courts as it considers Trump’s executive order rescinding birthright citizenship.
The conservative justices last week indicated they could curtail lower courts’ power to issue nationwide injunctions, with 40 or so being issued since Trump’s second inauguration in January.
